Pedal to the Metal.
Heavy Metal Machines certainly invokes many car combat games of the past, albeit in a MOBA-like format that in many ways, serves as a basis for the game’s overall enjoyment. Being free-to-play, you’ll have to work around the confines of that model to find a car that works for you, as each car varies in its purpose and function. When Heavy Metal Machines is firing on all cylinders, the game is electric, fast-paced, and will have you screaming at your TV when your shot has been intercepted at the last possible moment. When the game isn’t; however, it can feel frustrating, bland, and unimpressive.
Hoplon Infotainment’s efforts here with Heavy Metal Machines is certainly at least worth the download. The game is free-to-play, and console users can now finally play the game that has been on PC for the last two years; even going as far as offering a good chunk of unlockable cars and items for free. The Battle Pass, which contributes to many of the game’s unlocks is, at the time of this review, free as well. From the get-go, even with many cars being unlocked for new users, there is enough here to get you started, to give you a taste of what to expect when putting down some actual money to unlock a car that sings a bit more true to what you want from your mobile enforcer. However; I’ll also stress that games like this live and die by the support of its community, and with no bots to flesh out partially filled lobbies, matchmaking, even with cross-play switched on, took an average of about 3-4 minutes per game in most cases. This made me wonder how many players are actually investing their time, and money, into the game and whether or not a few months down the road if it’ll still see enough players to flesh out consistently full lobbies.
Every once in a while, I’m treated to codes or promotional goods for games like this, and yes, my review is based on such an unlock code; unlocking each and every racer for me to get my hands on. Some have become fast favorites, whilst others, such as the support class, simply didn’t do it for me. Having access to each character felt far more natural, and honestly, I don’t know if I would enjoy the game as much being so restricted in my choices. That said, the game does offer up some free drivers at the start, as well as a rotation system to keep some aspects of choice a bit more freeing than what other free-to-play games usually corner you into. While the game doesn’t require PS+ to play online, Xbox Live Gold seems to be a requirement, at least for now.
Heavy Metal Machines is a 4 v 4 game of car racing soccer. Think of it as a top-down version of Rocket League, but the path to the goal is a maze-like series of straightaways and turns that must be traversed to gain access to take your shot into the goal. There are a variety of pitfalls, such as drop zones that will take the bomb-ball away from your car if you pass through them, lava on the corners that eat away at your car’s health, and force fields that turn off shortcuts while you’re pulling the bomb behind you. Now, while you have all these things that make running the bomb a more challenging experience, the levels themselves, as there are only two of them, rarely feels alive. Each level has a few banners flapping around in the wind, or a rotating section to push against you as you traverse over it, but each of the game’s two locations feels far too static and devoid of life. Now, speaking of how there are only two levels, I played nearly fifteen matches before I even lucked out to see the second map. The game also has a map select animation that looks incredibly bizarre because it simply spins through two maps. It’s like if the Price is Right wheel had only 2 options but you see it spin, hoping for more options to suddenly appear.
This blandness translates to other aspects of the game as well. While there are fun and engaging designs for each of the 17 racers, they generally lack any sort of personality. You’ll have a few quips and bits of dialogue here and there, but unlike another car combat game, Twisted Metal, you don’t get anything here to present those personalities to you. There isn’t even any sort of character screen to dive into who they are. This results in the vehicles mostly being power swaps than living breathing characters that I could become attached to. I haven’t played Twisted Metal 1 or 2 in almost twenty years, but since it did everything it could to make those characters stand out, I can tell you each of the game’s entire roster off the top of my head.
Cars fit the overall mold of either being an Interceptor, Support, or Transporter. Now, these essentially spell out what they offer; support can heal and protect, Interceptor is built upon speed to catch up to the enemy, and Transporter is designed around taking the abuse of transporting the bomb. This also translates into the car’s design and driver as the more techy or mystical characters are built around being support, lighter and more agile characters are built for speed, while the more hulky heavies are usually your transporters.
While not every vehicle is equipped with a passive skill, each racer is at least equipped with four key abilities, varying from car to car. Icebringer, for example, is a Transporter with passive ice attacks that can freeze enemies upon contact. He can create an ice barrier that increases its power the longer it’s held as well as being able to release it into unsuspecting foes. He can also create a frost aura that pulls in enemies to take damage or summon a blizzard to deal damage as well. Vulture, an Interceptor, doesn’t have a passive ability, but can reach out with devastating blades to his victims, jump forward to pass through enemies, or launching five blades around him. Stargazer, who is one of the support cars, can summon a satellite ray that travels forward, damaging anyone in its path, to healing teammates who are nearby them. They also have a warp function, but you drop the bomb when you use it.
When it comes to any sort of car combat game, combat is usually the highlight of what most people look for. Blowing shit up, racing really fast, each has their appeal, which is why I feel the support classes don’t quite mesh well here, especially since most matches can often be done in minutes. In a more demanding session across a variety of games, healers often have their place, but some rounds here are done in minutes, depending on the skill of each team. I’ve had matches that are simple quick runs to the net that are shorter than the time it took to join the match, so I was often left wondering just exactly what the healer is even supposed to do. I simply don’t find this sort of game benefits a healer class, since once you die you are back in the match in just a few seconds and I’d rather see some sort of protection or healing skill given to the other two classes to deepen the game’s depth while still offering the shooting and speed systems those classes excel at.
Now, with a vast array of cars and drivers to choose from, some powers are very cool and can often make or break a match. Windrider’s ability to summon spiritual animals is a neat trick, but it’s skills like Wildfire’s Volcanic Road, Little Monster’s jump, or Rampage’s lift slam where the game introduces some fun mechanics and abilities that give a decent amount of variety to its cast. Now, of course, you’ll have sprays, emotes, and skins to track down as well, but apart from the vehicle skins, most unlocks are unlikely to really present any sort of excitement.
While abilities and speed are huge factors when it comes to staying alive long enough to score with the bomb or prevent the other team from doing so, mobility and actually playing the game is where I am often at odds with it being a smart design, and yet a baffling one. Controlling your movement and shooting range is all done on the left stick, meaning your weapons are largely going to aim where the front of your car is. The right stick, which would have been perfect for shooting, is only used to move the camera around to look ahead or behind you. This is likely to keep controller and mouse support to be even with each other. Again, there is a smart design work here that often works, but sometimes you’ll wonder if there wasn’t a better way. Other buttons, such as X, and B, are used for reversing, and grabbing the bomb, respectively.
Fleshing out the controls are your abilities which are mapped to your trigger and bumper buttons. With movement being largely based solely on the left stick, it can be a bit awkward to make small adjustments to, for example, trying to drive into a nearby health pickup without your car moving just to the side of it, making you back up, and try again, all while your team is scored on. Had pick-ups had a bigger area of collection, then that small issue would be resolved entirely. It can feel a bit odd driving and turning at first, but overall, the developer has done what can mostly be done without impacting the mouse and keyboard setup players also have access to.
Shooting the bomb into the net is amazingly fun, and can be a bit of a letdown when you don’t shoot or hold the button down long enough, watching it slowly creep to the goal as someone swerves near the goal line, snagging it at the last second. Now, I’m guilty of plenty of last-second snatches, but the shooting could feel a bit more impactful. Generally, you’ll hold down the shoot button, charging your shot, and then firing it off, again, in the direction your car is facing. Had the game had twin-stick shooting, it would feel incredibly satisfying to launch a goal as you weave in and out of a mess of cars huddled around the goal spinning your car around as you rocket the ball into the net with a curved shot.
As I mentioned before, the levels themselves are visually bland and far too static for the energy you get during a match. I’d love to see more levels added, with far more moving parts and a variety of what is active around you. Also, because the game is limited to just these two courses, there is not a lot of variety to the matches, since you are always taking the same paths, the same turns, limiting the depth of experiencing new ways to win matches. The cars are fun, but nothing we haven’t really seen before visually. Characters are well designed but lack the personality to truly compliment them. Audio takes a bit of sting as well with some bad audio-leveling, and despite the game being called “Heavy Metal” Machines, the music is simply lacking all around, with not a single memorable and hum-worthy track.
Despite my issues with the game, it is still incredibly fun to zip around the track, hauling ass with the bomb behind you, dodging and weaving in and out of danger; should you have the right team with you, that is. I’ve had some matches where my teammates did nothing, resulting in some quick losses, but then I’d have a match where everyone was gung-ho to get it done. I’d of preferred to see more modes and ideas here, especially with the game finally releasing on consoles, instead of just working through standard or ranked playlists, progressing through a battle pass to earn more currency and various items, skins, and collectibles. Heavy Metal Machines is easily worth the download to at least try, and who knows, maybe you’ll really find something worth investing your time into here.
Developer - Hoplon Infotainment. Publisher - Hoplon Infotainment. Released - February 23rd, 2021. Available On - Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4/PS5, Windows PC. Rated - (E-10) Fantasy Violence, Comic Mischief. Platform Reviewed - Xbox One/Series X Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.